Missing provides in gnu-free-fonts

[ellert]

The standardized font provides are missing from the gnu-free-sans-fonts and gnu-free-serif-fonts in CentOS 8. Though they are there for gnu-free-mono-fonts built from the same source rpm. The issue is specific to CentOS and is not be present in RHEL.

# rpm -q --whatprovides 'font(freesans)' 'font(freeserif)' 'font(freemono)'
no package provides font(freesans)
no package provides font(freeserif)
gnu-free-mono-fonts-20120503-18.el8.noarch

The provides for gnu-free-sans-fonts and gnu-free-serif-fonts are incomplete, compared to gnu-free-mono-fonts

# rpm -q --provides gnu-free-sans-fonts
config(gnu-free-sans-fonts) = 20120503-18.el8
gnu-free-sans-fonts = 20120503-18.el8
metainfo()
metainfo(gnu-free-sans.metainfo.xml)

# rpm -q --provides gnu-free-serif-fonts
config(gnu-free-serif-fonts) = 20120503-18.el8
gnu-free-serif-fonts = 20120503-18.el8
metainfo()
metainfo(gnu-free-serif.metainfo.xml)

# rpm -q --provides gnu-free-mono-fonts
config(gnu-free-mono-fonts) = 20120503-18.el8
font(:lang=aa)
font(:lang=ab)
[ .. language list abbrivated for clarity .. ]
font(:lang=za)
font(:lang=zu)
font(freemono)
gnu-free-mono-fonts = 20120503-18.el8
metainfo()
metainfo(gnu-free-mono.metainfo.xml)

This makes packages that Requires: font(freesans) and font(freeserif) uninstallable.

Error:
Problem: conflicting requests
- nothing provides font(freesans) needed by root-core-6.18.04-1.el8.x86_64
- nothing provides font(freeserif) needed by root-core-6.18.04-1.el8.x86_64
(try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)

Installing the same package on RHEL 8 works since there the provides are present.

Rebuilding the RPMs using spec and patches from the c8 branch from https//git.centos.org/rpms/gnu-free-fonts.git in an EPEL-8 mockbuild creates RPMs with the expected provides without changing any specs or patches.

https://wiki.centos.org/FAQ/General says:
CentOS [...] aims to be functionally compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

These missing provides contradict this aim.

[TrevorH]

This needs a bug entry on bugs.centos.org please.

[ellert]

I already tried submitting this to bugs.centos.org.

The first time 2019-10-03 (2 month ago):
https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=16523

And then again 2019-11-21 with higher priority and severity:
https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=16759

There has been no reply on either report, which is why I tried to find an alternative communication channel here.

[TrevorH]

I poked the team to make sure that whatever it is, it gets fixed in the upcoming 8.1.

[pkerney]

Is there a workaround to getting the root-core (etc.) packages from the epel repo installed on Centos 8 other than rebuilding the RPM locally?
I have seen the bugs submitted and neither of them have temporary workarounds either.